Archive | Careers

The boss doesn’t want to see your: tattoos

A Point of View

Melissa Pigott, Ph.D.

On April 26, 2016

Category: Careers, Employment, Managing Employees

Tattoos are not for everyone and not for every workplace. Just as I am fond of piercings, I am fond of tattoos. But, similar to piercings, I am not fond of tattoos in a professional office environment such as the company I co-own. My fondness for tattoos probably stems from growing up in Southwest Florida, […]

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Another View

David H. Fauss, M.S.M.

On April 26, 2016

Category: Careers, Employment, Managing Employees

As with the piercing issue, we had the foresight to address tattoos in our earliest policy manual.  Thus, we had the ability to address this issue with new hires, or prospective employees, from the beginning.  And, as with several of these issues, it was not the case that we were “old farts” or “uncool” about […]

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If you are bored, you are boring

A Point of View

David H. Fauss, M.S.M.

On April 21, 2016

Category: Careers, Employment, Getting the Job Done, Getting Through Life and Work, Life Outside of Work, Travel, Work-Life

I heard the statement which is the title of this post many years ago when one of “Fran’s friends” visited Jacksonville University as part of Dr. Fran Kinne’s efforts to broaden the horizons of JU students. Dr. Kinne was, at the time, the President of JU and her Rolodex (for those too young to remember, […]

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Another View

Melissa Pigott, Ph.D.

On April 21, 2016

Category: Careers, Employment, Getting the Job Done, Getting Through Life and Work, Life Outside of Work, Travel, Work-Life

“I’m bored” is something I learned, from an early age, never to say to my mother.  If I made the mistake of whining or whimpering something approaching “I’m bored,” Mom would assign one or more tasks to me, most of which were undesirable, to occupy my time.  Having grown up mostly alone, due to my […]

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The boss doesn’t want to see your: piercings

A Point of View

Melissa Pigott, Ph.D.

On April 19, 2016

Category: Careers, Employment, Managing Employees

Some people tell me I am stuck in the 1970s, or “old school,” or “retro.” I thank these people for recognizing this characteristic. I may be retro, but I am up to date on the latest fashions even though I choose not to partake in many of them. One of these fashions is multiple piercings, […]

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Another View

David H. Fauss, M.S.M.

On April 19, 2016

Category: Careers, Employment, Managing Employees

Piercings.  Again, not something I gave much consideration to other than when purchasing some earrings for Melissa with some regularity.  However, this was one detail that we did cover in our original policy manual; the issue was on our radar in 1993 at the beginning of Magnus.  What was, perhaps, not on the radar was […]

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Traveling as a team

Like Palidin, the adventurous, “gentleman gunfighter for hire,” played by Richard Boone in the TV series from 1958 to 1963, whose calling card said, “Have Gun will Travel”, as trial consultants, we go where the action is. The action is the case; we travel to the trial venues. Members of the Magnus team have worked […]

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I met a naive young person recently who, upon learning I travel with a team of people for work purposes, remarked, “That must be great not to travel alone!”, to which I replied, “It depends on who is traveling with me.”  I have traveled far and wide in the performance of my job on behalf […]

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The boss doesn’t want to see your: belly

A Point of View

Melissa Pigott, Ph.D.

On April 12, 2016

Category: Careers, Employment, Managing Employees

The world of workplace fashion is constantly evolving. I never thought I would be working someplace where I had to counsel employees on what to wear to work, but I have spent a lot of time doing so. Some people, it seems, believe that what is acceptable attire in their personal life is also acceptable […]

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Another View

David H. Fauss, M.S.M.

On April 12, 2016

Category: Careers, Employment, Managing Employees

Fortunately, today we can laugh about some of these topics related to dress code.  When the problems arose, however, we had some moments of distress trying to reconcile the notion that we were going to have to discuss such things as underwear, exposed bellys, etc.  The manly part of me admits such sights were sometimes […]

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The boss doesn’t want to see your: underwear

A Point of View

Melissa Pigott, Ph.D.

On April 5, 2016

Category: Careers, Employment, Managing Employees

When I wrote Magnus’ policies and procedures manual in 1994, prior to hiring any employees, I put a lot of thought into all of it, including the part pertaining to our dress code. Prior to co-owning Magnus, I had worked for a variety of employers, all of whom had strict dress codes, including a few […]

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Another View

David H. Fauss, M.S.M.

On April 5, 2016

Category: Careers, Employment, Managing Employees

Talk about some awkward conversations.  Because my role in this partnership is the business side, that includes human resources.  When these new challenges “revealed” themselves (pun intended) it fell to me to “handle.”  The easy part was to add a few lines to the employee manual prohibiting “visible underwear,” and the best way I could […]

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Bad Employees

One of the inspirations for this blog, as has been noted previously, was the 2011 movie starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis. It was a comedy about an oppressive boss and work environment that I quite enjoyed. But, I have to say, when I first heard the title, it was at a time […]

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I have been working since I was 15 years old.  In the years since I have been working, I have had my fair share of bad bosses, bad co-workers, bad subordinates, and bad employees (not to mention bad clients and bad assistants of clients).  David and I rarely forget the bad experiences we have had […]

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If you know an employee is drinking on job, tell the boss!

Many years ago we had a secretary working for us who had a secret; let’s call her “Polly.” And, the secret manifested itself in a strange way. For the first few months of her employment we had no issues. Then we started noticing that she performed okay in the morning, but not as well in […]

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Drinking alcohol on the job is never a good idea (unless one is a professional wine taster or something similar).  I have worked with many, many people over the years who were intoxicated on the job or who were experiencing the ill effects of intoxicants they consumed prior to reporting for work.  I have also […]

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Help the boss – it is why you have a job

A Point of View

David H. Fauss, M.S.M.

On March 17, 2016

Category: Business personalities, Careers, Employment, Getting the Job Done, Managing Employees, Small Business Success, Trial Consulting

Over the years we have had a few employees who failed to comprehend that Job # 1 was helping the bosses help the clients. Regardless of what we as bosses are doing, we need the employees to be “support staff.” More than 1 employee has been fixated on a task to the point that we […]

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Another View

Melissa Pigott, Ph.D.

On March 17, 2016

Category: Business personalities, Careers, Employment, Getting the Job Done, Managing Employees, Small Business Success, Trial Consulting

I have never understood why some employees fail to realize their only purpose is to work for their employer.  And further, I do not understand why some employees fail to realize that working for their employer means performing job duties requested by their employer.  For me, the only point of going to work is to […]

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Care about something

A Point of View

Melissa Pigott, Ph.D.

On March 16, 2016

Category: Business personalities, Careers, Employment, Getting Through Life and Work, Life Outside of Work

At first glance, this may seem like an unusual topic for this site, however, in my interactions with people, and in the world at large, I have found there are many people who care about little, or even nothing. There are some people who have a general disdain for humanity, and their fellow human beings, […]

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Another View

David H. Fauss, M.S.M.

On March 16, 2016

Category: Business personalities, Careers, Employment, Getting Through Life and Work, Life Outside of Work

As we have pointed out in these posts is that the scheme is one of us thinks of a topic and becomes the 1st writer.  The other of us responds.  As a result, I sometimes have to think about the topics and why they resonated with Melissa.  This is one of those but, as I […]

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